The Secret History
Reviews
I was hooked upon first read, it took me about a week to finish. I would definitely read again, the suspense was exhilarating. The ending sucked but made the most sense. such complex characters, you don’t know if it’s even possible to love them or hate them.
This has been a top favorite since reading it. I will spend forever trying to get my bff to read it, too.
im ugly crying
this was such a ride and i regret none of it.
Loved the writing
The book finished me….
I’ve got to lay my cards on the table here: I did not like this book. I tried so hard to, and I really wanted to, but it fell short for me. This is odd; I love everything that it represents- the murder, the references to Greek and Latin (I’m a sucker for anything revolving around Latin) but I just found this to be, well… dry. It’s so boring. The pace is so painfully slow. Not to mention the fact that I hated every single one of the characters, which, yes, I get that that’s the point, but come on Donna, at least make the plot interesting if you can’t invest in the characters! So anyway, I’m a Secret History hater. It’s a beautifully written book, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Maybe I’ll try again in a couple of years.
what the hell
The story seemed to drag a lot of the time - it felt odd that the climax scene happened and there was still almost a full other book after that. It took a long time to get into the story as there was entirely too much Greek specific talk and all of the characters were unlikeable yet also underdeveloped.
i loved it. i think it’s really good but it’s quite a long book. i would totally recommend this.
i did not expect that as an ending wtf. the characters in this book are so complex and i think that’s why i enjoyed reading it. lowkey reminded me of salt burn in the beginning. i need to watch a video analysis ASAP.
Personajazos
I really wanted to read this by relating on a personal level but failed because what the fuck
While Donna Tartt has an impeccable style of writing, I personally don't think the book is as good as some people make it out to be.
Yes, The Secret History has some beautiful psychological layers, well thought out characters, and a special sort of tension in the story, but I think some parts were unnecessarily prosy which made it a much less enjoyable read for me than I had originally expected.
read this about three years ago and have literally not touched it since then in hopes my memory will cleanse the last trace of this so i can experience it freshly all over again, but i've scarcely been able to forget anything about it. scratched into my brain forever and ever. great novel for readers who want to start reading literary fiction.
Read this at a good friend’s recommendation and really enjoyed it. The characters are unlike anyone I’ve read before, but somehow still believable. Kinda makes me want to get into Greek classics..
that was a god damn TRIP. would read again wow.
dark academia / fall vibes
i feel bad giving this book a 4, because its so well written, like donna tart's prose is just so good. she does an amazing job setting the scene and bringing you into this world. and like if you just love writing, this book is amazing to read just because of her talent with words, and how she crafts a story. the first half of the book is also amazing, the set up into what happens i was like :o, even though i knew it was going to happen. i was just like damn these people are really that awful huh.
this book is split up into two parts, and the second half can be a bit of a slog to read through at times, which is why i couldnt give it a 5. i would also be cautious recommending to friends because i can see how this might not be everyone's cup of tea.
best book BEST BOOK
About halfway through reading this digitally via the library, I went out and bought it in paperback, because I knew it would be joining my all-time list.
even though this kind of has a 200 page outro, wrapping up all the loose threads at about as slow a clip as you can imagine, every beat of it feels weighty and justified. such an unlikely page turner, genuinely one of the most intriguing character studies i’ve read.
Highlights
Belief, and absolute surrender
I wondered what it would be like to fall and break my head open on one of those bright rocks: a wicked crack, a sudden limpness, then veins of red marbling the glassy water.
Being and nothingness.
death
We had been there only twenty minutes and I already felt like shooting myself.
universal mood
(You want to know what Classics are?" said a drunk Dean of Admissions to me at a faculty party a couple of years ago. "I'll tell you what Classics are. Wars and homos.")
wtf 😭
consummatum est.
"it is finished."
‘She looks like a tough customer.’
‘She's from Hell,’ Charles said drunkenly.
‘Oh, she's not that bad,’ said Francis.
about bunny’s mother.
Henry took a sip of his tea. ‘How’, he said, ‘can I possibly make the Dean of Studies understand that there is a divinity in our midst?‘
when you put your professor on a pedestal
Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for those I did not.
Nihil sub sole novum
´Nothing new under the sun’
Tulips, I thought, staring at the jumble of letters before: Had the ancient Greeks known them under a different name, if they'd had tulips at all? The letter psi, in Greek, is shaped like a tulip. All of a sudden, in the dense alphabet forest of the page, little black tulips began to pop up in a quick, random pattern like falling raindrops.
tulips…
MAYBE (not for everyone but if you like dark academia)
Some things are too terrible to grasp at once. Other things - naked, sputtering, indelible in their horror - are too terrible really ever grasp at all.
Amor vincit omnia
‘Love conquers all’
Deprendi miserum est
‘It is unfortunate to be caught’
(…) I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.
Trees are schizophrenic now and beginning to lose control, enraged with the shock of their fiery new colors. Someone--was it van Gogh?-said that orange is the color of insanity. Beauty is terror. We want to be devoured by it, to hide ourselves in that fire which refines us.